William cooper



W- COOPER.

I 0x Yoke.

Patented Oct. 13, 1868.

{W24}, 11 2. a m M e liar/V55 5 5 WW eeste ww WILLIAM COOPER;

or PARIS, MAINE.

Letters Patent No. 82,922, dated October 13, 1868.

IMPROVEMENTIN oxqroxns.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom 'it may concern Be it known that 1, WILLIAM Ooornn, of Paris, in the county of Oxford, and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ox-Yokes; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others to make and use my invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of a yoke, with my improvement' thereon. i

Figure 2, a View of the slotted sliding plate;

Figure 3, a view of one of the staples, to hold the plate. I

This invention has for its purpose to regulate the leverage of the yoke of a pair of oxen, so as to give one or the other ox the advantage, as one is stronger or Weaker than the other.

I am aware of patents 33,003, granted in 1861, 24,096, in 1859, and 21,087, in 1858, each' of which aims to accomplish the same pin-pose as mine; and I do not,,therefore, 'claim, broadly, a yoke which can be adjusted to the difierent strength .of two oxen of ayoke, but desire to claim the devices shown in this application, which are dilferent fi'o'm those referred to.

p A particular description will illustrate my invention.

a shows a sliding slotted plate, placed on the under side of the yoke, as seen in fig. 1.

b b are staples, passing up through the yoke, and held by adjusting-nuts, c c.

The manner in which the cuived parts of the staples hold the sliding plate, is seen in figs. 2 and 3, passing over the parts (I d, and up through the two sets of parallel slots, 6 e.

When the adjusting-nuts c c are fully set or screwed up, the plate a is held tightly pressed up against the under edge of the yoke; when loosened, the plate can be slid fi'om one to the other side, to the extent of the slots 0 e.

f is the ring, to attach the yoke to the shaft of the cart. This ring fis held in a looped stud, h, which swivels in its hole in the plate a, and is held by being headed upon the upper side, so as to form a washer. (See i Now,it will be seen that,-as the plate is shifted from one to the other. side of the centre of the yoke, it car ries the ring fland so gives one or the other of the cattle the longest arm of the lever formed by the yoke.

This has, I have before remarked, been done in diflerent ways before, but Iclaim the devices for eifecting the purpose, as herein shown.

The free motion of the stud h, turning in thcplate 01, gives freedom to the motion of the cattle, when they do not travel evenly, as where one travels a little in advance of the other, or if they alternate, as most teams do, one and then the other of them stepping a little ahead.

k is a ring, to which, if desired, a front yokecan be attached.

My device can be easily applied to yokes made as common, and with little expense or trouble.

' I do not claim two plates of metal having teeth and grooves correspomling to each othcr, the under one having lips to lap over the edge of the yoke, as a means of rendering the point of draught adjustable on the yoke,'as shown in patent of H. Riggs, No. 21,087, August 3, 1858; neither-do I claim placing the attaching-rings of neck-yokcs upon bars, with racks passing on each side of a pinion, movable upon the main bolt, in order to admit of the longitudinal movement of the rings.

Disclaiming prcvhmsly-patcntcd devices, What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is

The sliding slotted plate a, hold by staples b l), and adjusting-nuts c c, and carrying the shalt-ring j, as and for the purposes set forth.

Wl hL-IAM ()OOJl llt. Witnesses:

" WILLIAM H. Onmsonn,

HENRY O. HoUs'roN. 

